The present invention relates to distribution of digital content over a computer network. For example, the present invention relates to on-demand book printing.
Rapid improvements in printing and binding technologies are being made. Specialized printers are being developed to print and bind books on demand, within only several minutes. These technologies will lead to on-demand book publishing in which books are not printed in advance. A customer in London will be able to order a book from a nearby bookshop. If the bookshop does not have the book in stock, it will request a publisher in New York to transmit digital content over the Internet. The bookshop will receive the digital content over the Internet, print the digital content, bind the printed pages into a book, and deliver the book to the customer. The on-demand book publishing will have many advantages over the traditional printing and distribution methods. For example, books will not be stored and transported as physical paper-based products. Thus, storage and transportation costs will be eliminated.
There will be a need to protect the digital content during distribution over a non-secure network such as the Internet. An Internet security protocol such as Secure Socket Layer (“SSL”) protocol will be inadequate. The SSL protocol allows a secured data communication link to be established between sending and receiving parties. Thus, any two parties having knowledge of each others public keys could establish an SSL secure link and send encrypted data over the link.
During a transaction, the content provider selects a printer or other end point. Once a printer is selected, the SSL protocol can provide a guarantee as to the identity of the printer. However, the SSL protocol cannot provide a guarantee that the printer can be trusted, nor can the SSL protocol help the content provider select a printer that can be trusted.
Additionally, the SSL protocol cannot ensure that certain characteristics of a particular job are fulfilled. It cannot ensure that a printer, for example, would have the resources to print and bind a particular book.
Moreover, once the digital content has left the content provider, the content provider would no longer control its intellectual property rights (also referred to as “digital rights”) in the content. The content provider should have a certain degree of control over the printing process and sufficient trust with the entity that receives the content and prints the books. For example, if a single book is ordered and paid for, only one book should be printed, bound, and delivered. The content provider should have control over the printing and binding process to ensure that only one book is produced. A protocol such as SSL would not provide the control.
Another application for which controlled distribution and printing of documents is useful is the delivery of confidential documents. Here too, the content provider should have an acceptable degree of control over the printing process and have a sufficient level of trust with the printer to protect the confidentiality of the documents and to limit distribution of the confidential documents.
Thus, a need exists for a system that can control the printing and distribution of digital content while protecting the digital rights. Such a system should also be able to select a printer or other end point that can be trusted.